[ExI] The mosque at Ground Zero.

John Clark jonkc at bellsouth.net
Sun Aug 15 14:15:51 UTC 2010


On Aug 14, 2010, at 2:12 PM, Jebadiah Moore wrote:
> 
> There is a form of relativism that doesn't posit that relativism itself is objectively good,

Then forget about good or bad, is relativism objectively true?

> only that objectivity doesn't exist.

But is what you just said really true, objectively? If we can't talk about good or evil or truth or falsehood then that would rather seriously limit the scope of philosophy and we'd only have the contemptible "the story of Adam and Eve and the talking snake is true for me" or "it's true for me that 2+2=5". Jebadiah, do you really think that is the proper way to figure out how the world works?

By the way, does subjectivity exist, does existence exist?
> 
> Similarly, "good" and "bad" are super-generalized terms of value, with "good" and "bad" usually being relative to some value of "normal" and with "better" and "worse" being used comparatively. [...]

Yes but you almost make it sound like super-generalized concepts are a bad idea.

> Value is judged according to some standard; there isn't a universal standard of value, obviously, because different entities have different values due to their different goals, positions, and domains of interaction.

If a Muslim says "I think it was a good thing that a religious zealot through concentrated sulfuric acid into the face of a young schoolgirl for the crime of wanting an education" then I have learned something new, namely the persons standards are OBJECTIVELY incompatible with my own standards. We would disagree about who is right and who is wrong but we would both agree that are views are not in harmonious agreement. You can decide for yourself if your views are more similar to the Muslim's or to mine. 
> 
>  in conclusion, there is no objective morality

Absolutely true, but there is something far more important, subjective morality. I prefer to associate with people who's subjective morality is closer to mine than the acid thrower. 

 John K Clark

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